I originally downloaded Mathway when I was in a very difficult calculus class, looking at problem sets at 2 AM with no one to turn to for assistance. I entered the problem, hit solve, and the app did what it promised: It returned an answer almost immediately. But that didn’t necessarily help me learn anything is another story.
Mathway is a math solving app created by Chegg, the same company that provides textbook rental and homework help services that nearly every college student is familiar with these days. You type in a math question (or use your phone’s camera to scan it) and the app tells you the answer. It includes everything from simple arithmetic and pre-algebra through to calculus, linear algebra, statistics and even some physics-related calculations. This is a pretty amazing selection for one app.
One of the little things that makes all the difference is the built-in math keyboard. It’s a nightmare to try to type fractions, square roots, or integrals on a regular phone keyboard, and Mathway does that well. You select your topic, such as calculus, and the keyboard displays the associated symbols. It may seem like a small thing but it takes a lot of fumbling out of the way.
So far, for me, the camera scan feature has been a mixed bag. It’s like magic when it happens. You take a picture of a problem in a textbook and the app reads it right. However, there is a lot of heavy lifting going on in that sentence in the form of “when it works.” Handwritten problems? Maybe fifty-fifty. Problems come out weird with fonts or spacing? It occasionally selects the wrong symbols. I have had it misread a minus sign as an equals sign more than once, and that obviously ruins the whole solution. You quickly find out to verify the output of the scanner against what was actually captured.
The part that most people including myself don’t like is this. The free version will only provide you with the final answer. No steps, no explanation, no “here is how we got there. Just the number. If you already know the method and you just want to check your answer, that’s okay. However, if you are stuck and are trying to determine where you went wrong in your reasoning, a naked answer is not very helpful. The premium subscription is required to get step-by-step solutions, and they cost about $10 per month or $80 per year depending on the plan.
I paid for 1 month during finals and I can say that it was worth it for that particular crunch period. The step breakdowns are well-explained and mostly in the logical progression that a textbook would take. However, I found it was too much for me to have the subscription all year round, so I cancelled after the semester. The annual plan may be more cost-effective if you are one of those people who always has trouble with math. For everyone else it’s like renting an app that you use twice a week.
The other thing to note is that Mathway is not a tutor and it doesn’t claim to be one. No lessons, no problems, no progress tracking. You are not going to open this app and emerge the other side with a better understanding of derivatives than you had before. It resolves the issue that you provide it and it goes on. Some students use it as a crutch and they are worse off for not interacting with the material, I have seen that with classmates who relied too much on it. The app is best used as a checking tool, rather than as a replacement for actually sitting down and working through the concepts.
As for performance, the app is fine most of the days. Sometimes it takes a very strange amount of time to do something that should be very simple, and I have seen it freeze once or twice with longer expressions. Not terrible, but enough to be a nuisance while working through a problem set. I had a few others in my study group who had to contact the support team as they paid for the subscription but the step by step feature was not unlocked immediately.
The bottom line, get Mathway if you need a fast answer checking or you get stuck at midnight when no tutor is available. Just don’t delude yourself that it takes the place of the learning itself. The app is not a teacher, it’s a calculator with extended reach.
